. A history of British birds . e, and the younger male Capercaillies which had beendebarred by the older and stronger birds from uniting withfemales of their own species. Under the former assump-tion, which has been maintained by Nilsson, Collett, andothers, the name of Tetrao urogallo-tetrix has been givenas expressive of the origin of this hybrid, and as a sub-stitute for the inapplicable name T. urogalloides. Fromthe erroneous belief that it was a distinct species, it hadalready been called T. medius, T. intermedins, &c. The male of this hybrid is a handsome black-billed bird,sometimes near
. A history of British birds . e, and the younger male Capercaillies which had beendebarred by the older and stronger birds from uniting withfemales of their own species. Under the former assump-tion, which has been maintained by Nilsson, Collett, andothers, the name of Tetrao urogallo-tetrix has been givenas expressive of the origin of this hybrid, and as a sub-stitute for the inapplicable name T. urogalloides. Fromthe erroneous belief that it was a distinct species, it hadalready been called T. medius, T. intermedins, &c. The male of this hybrid is a handsome black-billed bird,sometimes nearly as large as a young Capercaillie cock, andfrom six to seven pounds in weight; the shining feathers onthe neck are of a rich Orleans-plum colour, and the outerfeathers of the tail are longer than the others, giving it aforked appearance, although never to anything like the sameextent as in the Black-cock. The figure of this bird on thenext page is taken from a coloured illustration to Nilssons VOL. Ill, I 58 * Skandinavisk Fauna. Females are either rarer, or, fromtheir similarity to the hens of both species, they are over-looked ; they may, however, be recognized by the shape ofthe tail, which is perfectly square at the end, whereas inthe Capercaillie hen it is rounded, and in the Grey-henit is slightly forked. The liakkelfoijel are not believed tobreed amongst themselves, says Mr. Lloyd, but the malesresort to the Lek of the Black-game and disperse the cocks;and at the Lek of the Capercaillie, they flit from tree to treeand disturb the Spel, for which reasons they are always shotas speedily as possible by Scandinavian sportsmen. InScotland they have already made their appearance, and it isprobable that they existed there in former times contempo-raneously with the Capercaillie. Full descriptions and illustrations of every way of shoot-ing and snaring the Capercaillie will be found in Mr. Lloyds Game Birds; but the following description of a trap CAPERCAILLIE. 5
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Keywords: ., bookauthorsaun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds
